Washington, D.C.—The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) condemns the Florida Supreme Court’s decision yesterday to strike Amendment 9 from the November ballot. The amendment, modeled after ALEC’s Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act, would position the state to wage additional challenges against the federal requirement to purchase health insurance, and would prohibit the state from enacting a state-level, Massachusetts-style mandate if the current federal law is ruled unconstitutional.

The Florida Supreme Court’s ruling supports a lower circuit court decision to remove Amendment 9 from the state’s November ballot due to “misleading” language in the ballot’s summary. The state appealed this ruling, arguing to simply allow the original language of the entire amendment to be printed instead of the summary text.

“Unfortunately, this judge has taken a technicality and used it to throw out what was a fair and constitutional amendment,” said State Representative Nancy Barto from Arizona. “Floridians will not be able to protect their freedom of choice in health care.”

ALEC’s Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act has been proposed in 42 states, and has already been enacted in statute form by Virginia, Idaho, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, and Missouri. Constitutional amendments will appear on the November ballot in Colorado, Oklahoma, and Arizona, and an active citizen initiative is underway in Mississippi.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, individual membership organization of state legislators. www.alec.org